The Simplicity in business

The Covid-19 pandemic has upset many small business owners and we still have unanswered questions about how soon life will return to normal and what that new normal will look like. Now more than ever it is important to have a streamlined operation which allows you to deliver high quality products and services to your clients.

Written policies and procedures have many benefits such as:

• Allowing more time to be spent on marketing and customer relations.
• Making it easier to tweak your products and services as your customers’ needs change.
• Minimizing mistakes.
• Reducing anxiety for the business owner.
• Setting expectations for behavior and productivity not only for the owner but also for employees.
• Procedures lay out the required steps to deliver a product or service
• They provide consistency
• As your company grows they become a training tool

A few basic steps that will help improve workflow:

• List every process that occurs in your business from the first contact, to the delivery and then the ongoing follow up. 
• Take the time to analyze each step. This will allow you to determine how your internal flow is doing and what, if anything, you have been doing wrong.
• Taking an in-depth look at your systems also allows for opportunities that can be improved.
• Make sure every step is documented; that means laying out every step in the process in order to get work done effectively.

Automation is here to stay and there are constant improvements being developed in the area of management software. Take the time to see what is available in your specific industry. In the delivery of services and products there always will be “human issues” that cannot be solved by automation, but they will help you streamline the overall work process and will help you to be aware when “human touch” becomes necessary.